3 Olive Merges with EDC Technology

I have some exciting news to report about 3 Olive Solutions.  Recently, we made the decision to merge our operations with EDC Technology.  EDC is a great Chicago-based company with a long history in developing and delivering software technology and services.  This strategic move will allow 3 Olive to build on our success and expand operations while funding new growth. 

One important note is that 3 Olive's offerings and customer service will not change as a result of this merger.  3 Olive will operate as a division of EDC with its own mission.  However, with the combined resources of EDC and 3 Olive, we will be able to add new capabilities and grow the business at an accelerated pace. 

If you have any questions about this announcement, please let us know.  To view the press release, go to this link.     

New Feature: Multiple Secondary Values for Customer and Group Code

Account and Portfolio Administrators,
We are pleased to share with you new functionality in Portfolio Intelligence.  We have added the ability to select a primary value and multiple secondary values for the provided qualitative metrics, Customer and Group Code.  Now you can associate a single project to more than one Customer or Group Code and filter the portfolio or report on those multiple associations.

The primary value will continue to be the value used by the Dashboard graphs, the Risk/Reward bubble graph, and sort-able columns such as the Group Code and Customer columns on the summary and expanded panel views from the Dashboard tab through to the Measure tab.

The request input wizard will now ask for primary and secondary values similar to the entry of Skill Sets for Resources in Administration.  The Charter tab in the project folder has been redesigned to display and allow for editing of the primary and secondary values as well.

The secondary values are also included in the Global Filter and Reporting.   The values chosen in the filter or query selection boxes for Customer and Group Code are queried against both primary and secondary values.  When reporting on Customers and Group Codes, the results will display in their own singular columns similar to the current Alignment Metric values display.  If the data is exported to Excel, then each field will export to its own column in Excel with the field name “Customer” or “Group Code” as the column label.

If you would like to associate the current projects in your portfolio with secondary Customer or Group Code values, then open the project folder, select the Charter tab, select Edit, scroll down to the Tracking section and make the appropriate selections.  Hold the Ctrl key to select or deselect multiple items from one drop down box.

We hope you find this new functionality adds value to your user experience.  Please let me know if you have any questions or need assistance.

Best regards,
Bethany
Bethany Daniel
Director of Sales and Services
3 Olive Solutions
Toll Free - (800) 753-5821 x708
Direct - (571) 333-0883
bdaniel@3olivesolutions.com
www.3olivesolutions.com

New feature: Project filter for Resource Utilization chart

We are excited to announce a new feature in Portfolio Intelligence.  Users now have the option to filter the Resource Utilization chart by project to see the weekly/monthly load breakout view for a specific project roster.  Users can also opt to include in the filter projects from the Request and Pipeline lifecycle states to view ‘What-If’ scenarios by project.  Check this new feature out and please let us know your feedback.

Also, we’d like to take this opportunity to thank our clients for continuing to provide us helpful product suggestions that make Portfolio Intelligence more useful for our users.  We value and appreciate your input.

Thank you,
Bethany Daniel
Director of Sales and Services
3 Olive Solutions
Toll Free - (800) 753-5821 x708
Direct - (571) 333-0883
bdaniel@3olivesolutions.com
www.3olivesolutions.com

A Primer on 3D Printing

Although 3D printing has been around for a number of decades, the quality has increased dramatically in recent years and the prices are just beginning to drop, making it much more affordable for small and medium businesses.  And if you really want to explore 3D printing, they are even getting cheap enough for consumers to own.

The reality is 3D printing is a very cost-effective way to have an in-house rapid prototyping capability.  For a relatively modest investment, design engineers can use a 3D printer to catch design flaws earlier in the process lowering costs and shortening design cycles.

What is 3D Printing?

3D printing involves having the computer sending the coordinates for a 3D object to an output device (a 3D Printer) that employs the same ink-jet printer principle that is used to print on paper.  However, in this case the ‘printer’ deposits successive layers of material to build up a full-scale 3D model.   The material used can be powder, plastics, resins or even metals. 

In the case of powder, the printer is actually delivering ultra-thin layers of powder onto a surface, one on top of another, until it produces a 3D model.  With each successive run of the ‘printer head’, the powder that is deposited is then given a spray of a binding liquid that' helps to harden the powder and help form a solid object. 

The end-result of this process might be a model which designers can use to verify a product’s design qualities before full-scale manufacturing begins, or it might be an end-use specialty product ranging from a component in a complex aircraft engine to a consumer medical  or dental implant.

The big benefits of 3D printing is it’s low cost and speed.  The printers can generally produce models in as little as one-tenth the time it takes other types of machines.  3-D Printer-produced models are throwaway models that allow you to see things you would not be able to see as well on a computer with a CAD system.  The beauty of this approach is people can hold the proposed design, study it, and get a good feel for its shape.

Video Introduction to 3D-Printing

The video below (just under 4 minutes) is a promotional video, but it really is one of the best videos I’ve seen that can help you understand what 3D printing is and how it could be used in an office environment.  The video is from the Z Corporation and it promotes the company’s ZPrinter 450.  While Z Corporation products are out of the price range for most individual users, they represent amazing technology that is commercially available to anyone.

It is doubtful that this new generation of 3D printers can replace traditional manufacturing methods such as injection molding, machined or milled parts and manufacturing line assembly.  However I do believe that small and medium specialty manufactures should consider implementing 3D printing processes for individual steps or subsystems in a traditional line manufacturing process.  It is very possible that these new low cost printers would help reduce overall manufacturing costs.

For More Information

Wikipedia has a nice article on 3D printing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_printing).  And the site Fab@Home has lots of good information.  For those of you wanting to learn more about products and services out on the market, here are a few vendor sites to visit

• Desktop Factory  Makes a very small and affordable printers that truly fit on top of a desk.
• 3D Systems   Provides mid-range solutions that employ a technology that film transfers photopolymer to build 3-D objects
• Z Corp  Is widely thought of as providing top of the line printers for an office environment

2009 Social Media Benchmarking Study from Business.com

Business.com recently released their 2009 Business Social Media Benchmarking Study.   The objective of the study was to assess current trends in the use of social media in North American businesses.  

The results of the study were based on the 2,948 valid responses to Business.com’s survey during August and early September, 2009 and the report provides an interesting view into where businesses are finding value in social media across different activities and sites. 

The report is organized into two sections. The first section discusses how business people utilize social media today to find business-relevant information.  The second section covers corporate social media initiatives, benchmarking experience with social media for business (both respondent and company), top social media activities and how companies judge social media success today.

Highlights

Nearly 65% of respondents reported using social media as part of their normal work routine, including reading blogs, visiting business profiles on sites like Facebook or LinkedIn or using Twitter to find information and/or communicate about business-related matters

Among those using any form of social media to find business-relevant information, the most popular activity is attending webinars or listening to podcasts (69%) followed by reading  ratings/reviews for business products or services (62%). The least popular activities are saving business-related links on social bookmarking sites (28%) and participating in discussions on 3rd party web sites (29%).

Major Findings

• Over 1900 participants in the study indicated that they work for a company involved in social media initiatives. 92% are directly involved in planning or managing these initiatives.
• On average, these individuals spend 18% of their time in any given week working on these initiatives.
• 71% of the companies surveyed have less than two years of experience with social media.
• The average company in the study is currently involved in 7 different social media efforts.
• Top activities include – maintaining company related accounts and profiles on social media sites (70%), followed by monitoring company-related mentions on social media sites (60%) and maintaining one or more company blogs (60%).
• 66% of social media initiatives are driven by marketing, followed by 23% by customer support and 8% by product development departments.
• On average, companies use four different metrics to measure their social media initiatives - web site traffic, engagement with prospects and customers, brand impact – basically awareness and reputation, quantity and quality of leads
• 80% maintain a presence on Facebook.
• 56% have a company account on Twitter.
• A typical company in the study, maintains a presence on three different social media sites. 
• 47% of companies in the study upload content to one or more content sharing sites. So, although they may have a profile on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or YouTube, some companies may not be regularly sharing content. Over commitment to many social media initiatives at any one time has been sited by numerous case studies as a driving factor behind poor social media performance.  
• YouTube is the leading business content sharing site; used by 65% of those in the study that share content online.

Report’s Table of Contents

The report table of contents below can give you a feel for the type of information in the report:

• Beyond Chatting with Friends: Social Media as a Business Resource
  • Who Uses Social Media as a Resource for Business Information?
  • Most Popular Social Media Resources for Business
• Most Useful Social Media Resources for Business
• Current State of Corporate Social Media Initiatives
  • Respondent and Company Experience with Business Social Media
  • Top Corporate Social Media Activitie
  • How Companies Judge Social Media Succes
  • Initiative Detail: Managing Business Profiles on Social Media Site
  • Initiative Detail: Participating in Q&A Site
  • Initiative Detail: Using Social Media Monitoring Tool
  • Initiative Detail: Sharing Business Content on Social Media Sites
  • Initiative Detail: Business Content Bookmarking on Social Media Sites

The full report can be downloaded via the following link:  http://www.business.com/info/business-social-media-benchmark-study